Reality: What A Concept

Last week we had a special visitor come to North Carolina.

Who was this visitor?

Why it was none other than America's own lying, petulant, bullying, unintelligent, sociopathic, dishonorable, treasonous, gutless, moronic, heartless, soulless, slimy, loathsome, vile, incompetent, psychotic, crooked, disgusting, reprehensible, revolting, horrible, malicious, obnoxious, hateful, narcissistic, small-minded, despicable god damn, motherfucking piece of shit!

Or to save time: Donald Trump.

Standing in North Carolina, speaking to people from North Carolina, Li'l Donnie felt compelled to say that North Carolina sucks! 

Der Führer pronounced North Carolina as one of the absolute worst states in the nation.  

Apparently Trump thinks North Carolina is some kind of stinking cesspool of crime and violence and it's all Roy Cooper's fault.

So he's seen the Michael Whatley ads then, I guess?

We're in the middle of a campaign for an open U.S. Senate seat  with Democrat Roy Cooper going up against Republican Michael Whatley.   

Roy Cooper was born in North Carolina, has lived here all his life and has a solid tract record of service to the state as a legislator, district attorney and governor.

Michael Whatley is... none of those things.  

Whatley has been running ads that paint Cooper as soft on crime, releasing thousands of criminals and chances are because of Roy Cooper, if you're in North Carolina, you're being murdered right now.

Those ads have included grieving fathers who attribute the murder of their children to Roy Cooper.

Except...

One father said he was told his testimonial was for a project on fighting gun violence.  He intends to vote for Roy Cooper and says there is nothing about his son's murder that has any connection to Cooper. 

The other father is in SOUTH Carolina and his daughter was murdered in SOUTH Carolina and her murder has no connection to Cooper or any of his policies in NORTH Carolina. Unlike the other dad, this guy does not disavow his participation in the ad and is proud of whatever he can do to stop Roy Cooper and support Donald Tr--whoops, Michael Whatley.   

Cooper has a counter ad that calls out these Whatley spots as lies.  

All Whatley has going for him is his absolute and total fealty to der Führer.  His devotion is so complete, Whatley insisted in an interview that grocery prices are DOWN and gas prices are DOWN. Just because Li'l Donie thinks he can get away with saying this crap doesn't mean anybody else can say this shit. 

Cooper has another ad that runs this interview, followed by Roy looking at the camera with utter incredulousness. "Can you believe this guy? I KNOW prices are going up!"    

Roy Cooper's selling point: he understands reality.  

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"Reality: what a concept!"  

---Robin Williams

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Donald Trump has his own concept of reality.

• Prices are DOWN!
• The war with IRAN is going GREAT!
• People LOVE Donald Trump!

Woe and lamentations unto thee to say otherwise:

• Prices are UP!
• The war with IRAN is an intractable MESS!
• And no we fucking DON'T!

Li'l Donnie rejects these points as FAKE NEWS and declares he will ban news agencies that don't report his concept of reality.

Saturday morning, reporters for CNN, MS NOW and Politico showed up at the White House to find their press passes revoked and confiscated for the temerity of reporting anything that does not align with his vainglorious delusions that everything is awesome and we owe all that awesome to Trump! 

With Natalie Harp printing up a constant stream of pro-Trump, pro-MAGA propaganda, Li'l Donnie's propensity for ignoring the reality we live in in favor of his own is reinforced. The only voice he hears other than his own is a selected cadre of syncophants who are mere echoes of his self aggrandizement.

Nowhere is this more blatantly on display than with the fuckery going on with the Kennedy Center.

Immediately after being sworn in for his 2nd term, Trump quickly sacked the Kennedy Center's board of trustees and replaced them with people loyal to him. And der Führer made himself chairman of the board. 

And that's when the troubles began.

Various artists scheduled to perform at the Kennedy Center began cancelling their shows.  

Sales of tickets and memberships declined precipitously.

To honor their Lord and savior for this good work at saving the Kennedy Center from ruin, the board voted to put Trump's name on the building.  

And that's when the troubles got worse! 

Any artists holding their noses to still perform at the Kennedy Center dropped out.  Revenue bottomed out.

The courts ordered Trump's name be removed from the building.

Presumably this was done but a tarp hangs over the front of the building to spare widdle Donnie's feelings from being hurt.

Faced with a financial crisis, the Kennedy Center board says the only way to save it is to put Trump's name back on the building.

You know, the very act that precipated the center's financial crisis.

Trump's concept of reality is that the Kennedy Center was bleeding money and heading for financial ruin until he took charge.

After a downturn brought on by the COVID pandemic of 2020, the Kennedy Center was running a deficit. But in 2023 and 2024, the center was back in black, taking in more than it spent.

From the moment Trump installed his own stooges to run the joint and himself as chairman, the Kennedy Center has been in the red, losing money.  

BUT the board asserts that ONLY Donald Trump can lead the effort to improve fund raising to get the Kennedy Center back on track but he's NOT going to do that unless he gets credit for it.

An assertion that Trump himself repeats: why should he lift a finger to help the Kennedy Center if he's not going to get credit for it?

Meanwhile, facing bankruptcy, the board voted to shut down the Kennedy Center and there's a very real fear that if der Führer does not get his way, he may tear the damn thing down. 

Think it's a bit outrageous that he would do such a thing? If you think that, I have a lovely White House East Wing to show you and ---Whoops! No, I can't. There is only a hole in the ground where Trump is building a ballroom that only he wanted.

And that's where we are, navigating two realities.

There's the reality you and I are stuck in where every goddam thing is on fire and Donald Trump is holding the match and the gasoline.

And there's the reality where Li'l Donnie lives, where everything is golden and NOT on fire and he wants credit for all the wonders his dementia addled brain beholds.

And if CNN won't confirm his concept of reality, to hell with them.

Natalie Harp has a print out that will confirm that...